New M15x Bios Release X32 and up, post results

Good job AW

 

Why don't the fans just turn on sooner so that we don't hit temps of 90+ degrees? From what I've heard, the fans don't go full blast until it's reached 85-90, then it gets down to 75 ish. Why not turn the fans on full when it hits 75-80?

 

JWest, good point. Why wait till it gets SUPERhot lol.

Although maybe i guess Alienware is trying to put off turning the fan on too much maybe because of noise?

 

Which brings up another question, how long does it take to heat up to 75C? Any m15x owners?

 

Why not make a BIOS that enables us to control the Fan speed like Ik8Fangui does. THat program is just amazing on the XPS's and other Dell notebooks.

 

i think that all comes back down to user=dumb. the term PEBKAC doesn't always say it quite well enough...

obviously the people here are mostly, if not completely power-users (if not more-than)... and for we the power-user, we'd love that sort of thing, however, companies like AW need to fit every person equally... thus expanding their target market and the larger amount of people they are looking to sell to. simplifying the thermal controls of the system to an automated system, is fairly effective and suits most users (even power users)...

albeit that more than a few of us would like more control over the fans in the system, but we are the few. they have to balance between cost and benefit. the benefit of providing such a thing could come at a great cost if they have to re-tool the entire bios to allow for it. and it's not a great benefit for them to do so, only to make their otherwise fairly happy customers, just that much more happy.

sad, but true.

 

I think teh fans are setup in the most simplest fashon as possible. Goes on when hot and turns off when not. SUPPOSED to be least ammount if issues.
Also, they will not have the fans come on when warm. Deals with battery issues at this point. A fan on high will suck up battery. Granted most people will run it on a/c power, but some will not since its a laptop. I know I would be sad if the battery time dropped form 2:30mins to under two hours.

 

possibly by just turning that "feature" off. i'd love to see release notes on what they actually changed.

 

very fast.. within a min or 2.

 

my fan turn on full blast at 93oC. which is too slow/late and high....

 

But, it still turns on when it gets warm right??

 

nope it only turns on full blast at 93oC.

 

If I'm understanding you correctly, yes the GPU fan does have an "intermediate" level for the times where it only gets "warm". The original problem (with the old BIOSes) was the fact that the GPU fan would only go to this intermediate level and never to max, meaning that the GPU worried the fan was broken and downclocked accordingly.

 

If it still runs when the computer is warm then it shouldn't be a problem. what are the temps on idle for your GPU & CPU?

 

Just ran rivaturner while playing UT3 for an hour+. Seems no downclocking, shows a clean straight line in riva turner (BIOS v.32). With the highest resolution I get average 60+ fps

Wanted to make a 3d mark check today, but it weights 500mb :O No one knows any other programs to do it?

 

its around 70oC to 74oC

 

Some of your temps worry me. My friends m15x peaked at 79 under load and ~40 idle with the 8800 and t9300 :O

 

if im currently expiracing no issues with the x30 bios , should i even touch this one?

 

I would wait at least until the final version of X32 is released, and then at that point make the decision. As others have said, no point risking damage to something not broken.

 

I'm gonna take a moment here and outline a problem that I've noticed: ThermoFan gives different temperature readings than, say, GPU-Z. For example, right now, GPU-Z is telling me that my GPU temp is 73 degrees, while ThermoFan says 67. Not so big of a difference now, but I've seen differences of over 15 degrees between ThermoFan and GPU-Z readings.

The problem is, then, is that half of people are reporting that their temps go as high as 88, while someone else looking through ThermoFan will see a 75, even though their laptops as probably at the *same* temperature. My point? I think we need to start differentiating our temperature readings by what program reports them, cause different programs are giving different numbers, and that isn't helpful on a forum like this.

 

Those temps are high for idle. Does the fan even blow when your computer is on idle?

 

But my next question is: what program is he using to read them?

 

totally agree, which is why I never trust a single source for any of these measurements. currently using everest, gpu-z, cpu-z, and rivatuner.

 

Is Thermofan more trustworthy than the other progz?

 

I'd love to know. It is the program provided with the laptop, so you would hope it's the most reliable (plus that means, if ThermoFan is the more accurate program, our laptops really aren't going up to 90 degrees but rather a more reasonable 75 to 80 degrees)

 

If the temps reach above 90 C one should already begin to see graphical anomalies such as artifacting during gaming...so far, no one has seen this.

 

yup the fans are blowing... but not at high speed...
i'm using riva tuner, gpuz and HWmonitor to monitor the temp. All programs gave me the same result.

Second thing I realise, after i change the thermal compound to AS5 the temp got worst... and those readings were taken when using AS5.

I just change my thermal compound to tuniq TX-2 yesterday... and the temp reading got better... made a test using atitool, scan for artifacts... the temp never goes beyond 90oC. once the temp reach 89oC the fan will full blast and will maintain at 81-83oC.

Will continue monitoring on the idle temperature... and made another test next week when the compound has settle.

 

But I can bet my bottom dollar that ThermoFan will give you a different number

 

No one reported problems like this even after the 8800M GTX of several people were much hotter than 90°. So I guess you are wrong - it's possible that the high temperature causes graphical errors but you don't get them as soon as the GPU core reaches 90°. When you get graphical anomalies it's quite possible that the graphic card is already damaged.

 

I think dhoang's point is that it is possible the 90 degree reading is just wrong. ThermoFan, the actual program that came with the laptop for reading temperatures, never gets even close to a reading of 90 degrees.

 

Yeah, that's the point I was trying to make. ATI tools would pick up the artifacts in it's test by then...So, I think that Thermofan is the most accurate.

@bbb_yaoxiang - AS5 takes a while to settle in, that's the reason way it didn't help cooling the card to quickly at first. There are other brands that cure much faster.

 

doesn't ntune monitor have its own temp display? you'd think that it would be the end-all authority on an nvidua gpu core temp.

and fwiw i don't recall thermofan being far off from the others back when i had the m15x. I wonder if someone reapplied X30 or X29 if they would see the temps are in sync with the other utilities.

 

I've always noticed this disparity between readings myself

 

They've always been way off for me, that's why I generally include ThermoFan readings in my screenshots. Not always though.

 

Hi guys I have the X30 BIOS and no downclocking problems even after a long gaming session - about 2 hrs of Crysis and 2 hrs of Oblivion. Should I still install the X32 bios ? This is the RC1 version should I wait for the final ? Temperatures get to around 84 -86 C and then fans kick into high and drop to late 70s. Average temperatures hover around 78 - 82

Thanks in advance

 

Wait till the final version if you're having no problems

 

Mortis,
I'm in the same boat as you. Same Bios, and I have been monitoring gaming sessions with riva tuner. Played bioshock for 2 hours last night and I peaked at 82c. No downclocking. The fear is what is going to happen to our laptops in the heart of summer? Half of me now wishes I got a desktop.

 

I have attached some pics, not directly considering the new bios but different temp readings with different programs!

One shows different temps of my 8800 with GPU-Z und ThermoFan and the other a comparison of the system temps monitored by HW-Mon and ThermoFan. Still no clue whats showing the correct temps...

 

Tested furmark for around 12 min. No downclocking. I could have tested longer, but don't feel the need at this time. I also tested crysis for 30 min yesterday with no problems as well (played the 'tank' board which is pretty gpu intensive).

Preliminary tests look excellent. I think I now have a fully functional m15x with no issues what so ever (except crappy touch control volume)... thanx AW!

 

nvmonitor ought to be taken as the most accurate since its supplied by the manufacturer of the driver and the chip. compare that everything and i think you'll see that thermofan is the odd measurement out.

 

Is thermofan supplied by AW? Or is it something you guys downloaded?

 

It comes pre-installed with the computer